"On Saturday Quakers inaugurated a memorial, in the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, to peaceable service during and after World War II. The Quaker site lies a ten minute walk away from the iconic Armed Forces Memorial at the centre of the Arboretum. Although the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, has been pacifist from its beginning in the 1650s, it has not been dogmatic about how its members should express this. Since conscription in 1916, responses have ranged from refusal to register under the National Service Acts, to full military service. Most of those conscripted claimed conscientious objection to military service; the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU) and Friends Relief Service (FRS) presented the opportunity to serve where the war directly affected people. A majority of the 1,300 members in each organisation were not Quakers, but chose to willingly serve alongside them. The FAU, managed by its own independent Council, accepted that members serving in military theatres dealing with casualties would be required to wear khaki – a step too far for the Society as a whole, whose official Friends Relief Service wore Quaker grey with the Quaker star and worked with civilians. My father served with the FRS during the war and I served for two years with the FAU International Service in the 1950s in civilian contexts – with no uniform. The work of the two organisations often overlapped; FAU workers’ training in first aid put them in the front line during the blitz, while the FRS ran evacuation hostels in the UK. Following the military through mainland Europe, both were involved in relieving Nazi concentration camps and subsequently working with displaced people. FAU members were quickly redeployed where immediate needs were most urgent, while FRS members were engaged with the rehabilitation of people whose humanity had been denied as slave labourers or prisoners under Nazi rule. Over the course of the war, 17 FAU members lost their lives, often alongside the military. Others were taken as prisoners of war." http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/22/quakers-in-wartime/
Reading this blog got me to thinking how the Quakers fared under Nazi rule. I found this article which is a reflective on two books about just that. It's worth a read. Thanks for making me think, Gordon. Living the Truth, Speaking to Power Larry Ingle A reflective review of two books by Hans A. Schmitt: Quakers & Nazis: Inner Light In Outer Darkness, by Hans A Schmitt. University of Missouri Press, 300 pages, cloth, $29.95; and Lucky Victim: An Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times, 1933-1946, cloth, Louisiana State University Press, 254 pages (out of print). What stance does one take in the face of those who have power? More specifically, do members of the Religious Society of Friends take stances different from others? These central questions are at the heart of what Quakers feel called to be, and nowhere were these questions more relevant and potentially tragic than in Germany during the years that Adolf Hitler and his Nazi minions ruled there. From the middle of the 17th century Children of the Light or Friends of the Truth, as they originally called themselves, felt called to direct the Light of divine wisdom into dark areas of human existence and witness to the Truth that they knew best from experience. During the three hundred years of Quaker history, few comers of life were as devoid of official light or truth as Germany in the Hitler years. It is good to be able to report that the tiny handful of German Quakers acquitted themselves well, even though there were numerous restraints on their speaking. http://www2.gol.com/users/quakers/living_the_truth.htm
And a more humane, honest, truthful and decent folk that anyone would find difficult to admonish. Still today, they live by their beliefs and morals. Most will know I do not do religion...That does not preclude me wishing to praise the Quakers. Who are active and vocal in Politics, nuclear disarmament and none violent activism in the UK. ...The song something inside so strong...always comes to mind when I think of the Quakers...Because...as the song says...they...are going to do it anyway...Quakers do not see any enemy...they see people.
I remember encountering a few Friends in Vietnam. Rather than accept CO (conscientious objector) status in the draft, they served as non-combat medics.
